Banking

Some of today's credit products and practices risk leaving consumers trapped in a cycle of debt.

The Urban Institute has released a report reviewing data from 118 million homeowners and 127 million renters to help understand how mortgages relate to other consumer debts.

San Francisco Fed President John Williams discusses the potential for new fintech products to make predatory lending easier, whether big banks need to be broken up, and the likelihood of another recession.

Hometown Community Bancorp in Morton, Ill., has agreed to buy Illini Corp. in Springfield, Ill.

Mid Penn Bancorp in Millersburg, Pa., has hired Michael Peduzzi as chief financial officer.

Community Financial Corp. in Waldorf, Md., has agreement to support a director nominated by the activist investor Basswood Capital Management.

The CFPB's annual report to Congress updates the current status of proposed debt collection rules and lists four key themes that emerged from the more than 23,000 comments received after the CFPB’s 2013 debt collection Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.

Royal Financial in Chicago has agreed to sell $25.8 million of distressed assets associated with its pending purchase of Park Bancorp in Chicago.

Banks have to know a lot about their customers, who generally trust them to keep personal information secure. Who better to serve as digital identity providers in a post-password world?

Though the use of a digital identity may take years to go mainstream with consumers, BBVA Compass is thinking about the role that banks should play and taking steps toward being part of the solution.

Ryan Singer, CEO and cofounder of startup Blockchain Health, discusses the problems with the traditional "shared secrets" method of verifying identities, and the possibilities opened up by mobile computing devices.

The way we verify people are who they say they are must evolve to reflect new technologies like peer-to-peer platforms and the Internet of Things and the ways millennials live and work.

Around the world, technology companies, governments and even some banks are coming up with new, safer and easier ways for people to prove they are who they say they are. Generally the goal is to allow people to be authenticated once by a trusted identity provider (a role banks could play) rather than share sensitive information with countless third parties, as they do today. Here we highlight just a few of the many organizations innovating in this space.

Thousands of students who were defrauded by Corinthian Colleges could receive billions in debt forgiveness from the federal government, the U.S. Department of Education announced Friday.

Hackers penetrated the computer network of a Verizon Communications subsidiary, but the company says it plugged the hole before much data was compromised.

CU Anytime will upgrade its ATM management system to a software platform provided by NCR Corporation and INETCO Software.

Sterling Bancorp in Montebello, N.Y., plans to raise $105 million in a debt sale to fuel potential acquisitions of commercial lenders.

WASHINGTON – Four Democratic senators sent a letter on Thursday to federal financial regulators asking for clear guidance on how banks can serve the marijuana industry.

Nandita Bakhshi and Ellen Alemany discuss strategy; Beth Mooney strikes a deal; a Lehman Sister recounts her experience as a woman at the top of Wall Street in its doomsday; and HSBC sets a goal to have equal gender representation in certain areas by 2020. Plus, some interesting research on equal pay for women, and good grief, Raymond Moore.

American Banker readers share their views on the most pressing banking topics of the week. Comments are excerpted from reader response sections of AmericanBanker.com articles and our social media platforms.